Ireland’s Minister for Health James Reilly has refused to comment after a leak of the draft report into the Savita Halappanavar tragedy which says her request for an abortion should have been considered days before her death in a Galway hospital.

The Evening Herald newspaper has published details from the draft report surrounding the death of the 31-year-old who died of a massive infection seven days after being admitted to hospital.

The paper reports that the investigation set up by Minister Reilly has uncovered a litany of failures.
The draft report alleges that the infection which led to her death was not diagnosed for three days.

The report says the failures included:

- Tests showing possible blood infection on the day Savita was admitted were never followed up by staff.

- Doctors were often too busy caring for other patients to deal immediately with the mum-to-be, whose condition grew progressively worse as time went on.

- To prevent the spread of infection, staff should have considered performing an abortion – even before the couple requested it.

The paper adds that on the day she was admitted last October, Savita and her husband Praveen were informed that a miscarriage, the most likely cause of which was infection, was inevitable.
Praveen has confirmed that the couple repeatedly asked for a termination from the following Tuesday.

He says that staff turned down the request, telling the couple that, as a result of the laws governing abortion, their ‘hands were tied;.

The report adds that doctors chose to ‘await events’ and seven days after she was admitted, Savita Halappanavar died.